DAS REICH

1938 - 1958

"Učit'sja, učit'sja i učit'sja", "Studying, studying and studying", as Vladimir Il'ic Ulyanov - AKA comrade Lenin - said.Words that sound almost ridiculous now, just like all of the Bolshevik leader mottos. "Even a cook should learn and rule a country", "You have to bury all theatres" and so on. Lenin actually quoted Chekhov and his novella My life.

The style of this artwork is too dark to indulge in the detached irony that time and distance sometimes bring with them.

The black and white is the same as Goya’s cycle on war.This is an artwork about the three totalitarianisms that arose in the 20th Century, the most gloomy of all six works.A different, more explicit and less subtle kind of gloom when compared to the artwork on the Digital Revolution.

The ambiguity and anamorphosis change background and historical frame but leave its meaning intact: in the barbed wire of a concentration camp we find Christ’s crown of thorns.The ancient Hebrew words taken from Psalm 23 - the one sung during the Shabbat - become a form of encouragement for the children of the camps: "Even if I went / in the dark valley / I would not fear any evil, / because You are always with me; / Because you are the my rod, my staff, / With you I feel comfortable".

These same words will be used for a 1990s dance tune, Gam-Gam. A mere background for careless dances and thrills.